Pruning Mature Trees. 15 
same age. With such a system of training the first tree will be 
productive at the age of fifteen years, while the latter, now ten years 
old, must be rejuvenated by severe heading-in or be discarded as 
unprofitable. There is no fault to which the old peach tree more 
often falls heir than that of the absence of fruiting wood in its 
lower parts. Such wood below can only be maintained by vigorous 
pruning in the top. The center should also be well filled with fruit¬ 
ing wood, as space may be unnecessarily wasted by training the 
top too open; the open center is not a necessity in our arid sections 
where we enjoy an abundance of sunshine. The fruiting wood in 
the center of the tree will hardly appear as strong as that nearer the 
tips, but, nevertheless, some of our best fruit comes from short and 
apparently weak spurs along the larger limbs. Some have tried 
summer pruning (thinning out the new wood in the center of the 
tree), hoping to strengthen the wood remaining, but it has not 
given satisfactory results; too often it starts new growth that is 
immature and unfruitful. 
It is seldom that we read a paper upon the subject of pruning 
the peach orchard without we see some reference to the treatment 
of winter-injured trees. With the exception of young trees grown 
too late, or orchards in higher altitudes or northern latitudes, such 
injury it not often experienced in Colorado. It is well for the 
grower to remember, however ,that the winter-injured peach tree 
makes the best recovery when it has received a moderately severe 
pruning. Another subject more worthy of mention is that of the 
rejuvenation of the old peach orchard. The occasional loss of a 
peach crop by late frosts offers an excellent opportunity to grow a 
new top on the old peach tree. Figure 12 shows a peach tree 
headed-in to secure a new top, while Figure 13 shows a tree eleven 
years old, two years after such a pruning. The cutting back should 
be done as soon as possible after the loss of the crop can be ascer¬ 
tained; severe pruning as late as the first of June forces rank new 
growth that develops very few fruit buds. Rather large limbs may 
be cut if the bottom of the tree has some smaller growth, but cut¬ 
ting to bare stubs over two or three inches in diameter is hardly 
advisable. 
THE pear. 
The mature pear tree is not one that requires a great deal of 
pruning, nor does it allow lack of pruning to interfere seriously 
with its proper behavior, so far as fruit bearing is concerned. How¬ 
ever, when the market demands that the fancy pear be from 2^4 
to 3 inches in diameter, the owner of the old pear orchard is often 
reminded that the trees need pruning. In general, the manner of 
fruit bearing of the pear is practically identical with that of the 
apple. The spurs are a little shorter and give the tree rather a 
